Women Talking leads film nominees for 2023 DGC Awards

The DGC also announced nominees in the documentary and short film categories, and revealed the shortlist for the Jean-Marc Vallée DGC Discovery Award.

Sarah Polley’s Women Talking, Brandon Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool, Clement Virgo’s Brother have earned multiple Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) Awards nominations in the feature film category.

The DGC announced nominees for its 22nd annual awards in the feature film, documentary, and short film categories, as well as the shortlist for the Jean-Marc Vallée DGC Discovery Award on Tuesday (Sept. 19). The winners will be revealed at a gala ceremony on Oct. 21 in Toronto.

Toronto filmmaker Polley’s drama Women Talking (pictured) leads the feature film category with four nominations, including Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film.

Women Talking also picked up nominations for production design for Peter Cosco, editing for Christopher Donaldson and Roslyn Kalloo, and sound editing for David McCallum, Jane Tattersall, Alex Bullick, Krystin Hunter and Christopher Alan King.

The Toronto and Pickering-shot film is based on the book by Canadian author Miriam Toews, and produced by U.S. prodcos Plan B Entertainment, Hear/Say Productions and Orion Pictures.

Other nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film are Cronenberg for Infinity Pool (Film Forge, Elevation Pictures, 4 Film, Hero Squared), Virgo for Brother (Conquering Lion Pictures, Hawkeye Pictures), Molly McGlynn for Fitting In (Nice Picture) and Chloé Robichaud for Days of Happiness (Item 7).

Both Infinity Pool and Brother picked up three nominations apiece. Infinity Pool was also nominated for picture editing for James Vandewater and best sound editing for Bullick, Jill Purdy, Robert Bertola, Craig MacLellan and Simon Miminis, and Brother for picture editing for Kye Meechan and sound editing for McCallum, Tattersall, Hunter, Paul Germann, Jean Bot and Kevin Banks.

The nominees for in the production design category also include Ludovic Dufresne for Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (Art et essai), André-Line Beauparlant for Viking (micro_scope), and Laura Nhem for Red Rooms (Nemesis Films).

The shortlist for Jean-Marc Vallée DGC Discovery Award includes: Ariane Louis-Seize for Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person, Chloé Leriche for Atikamekw Suns (Les Films de l’autre), Cody Lightning for Hey, Viktor! (North Country Cinema), Fawzia Mirza for The Queen of My Dreams (Shut Up & Colour Pictures, Baby Daal Productions) and Zarrar Kahn for In Flames (Other Memory Media, Citylights Media).

Documentaries To Kill a Tiger by writer-director Nisha Pahuja (Notice Pictures, National Film Board of Canada), Noura Kevorkian’s Canada-Lebanon-Qatar copro Batata, produced by Kevorkian with Paul Scherzer, and Zack Russell’s Someone Lives Here, produced by Matt King and Andrew Ferguson, all picked up two nominations each, including the Allan King Award for Excellence in Documentary. The films also earned editing nods, with Mike Munn recognized for To Kill a Tiger, Kevorkian and Munn for Batata and Marianna Khoury for Someone Lives Here.

Other nominees for the Allan King Award for Excellence in Documentary are Jules Koostachin for WaaPaKe, produced by Teri Snelgrove, and Phyllis Ellis for the sports doc Category: Woman, produced by Ellis and Howard Fraiberg.

The directors up for Best Short Film are Eva Thomas for Redlights (Carousel Pictures), Anubha Momin for Aftercare (Above the Palace), Mostafa Keshvari with For Her (GrandMuse Pictures); Lisa Robertson for SmokeBreak (Benchmark Pictures), Murry Peeters for Woman Meets Girl (Process Entertainment), and Emily Lerer for T-Minus, produced by Toni Cunningham.

The DGC announced the nominees for television series, movies for television and mini-series in August.

Photo by Michael Gibson, courtesy of Orion Releasing